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Finally it seems odd to talk about mana denial without mentioning the auras that turn your opponent's lands into Islands like Spreading Seas, which restrict color and type and also support an islandwalk game plan.

1 month ago

Gleaming Barrier is a really great card to have for mana fixing. Yes, I do understand that taking them out for the treasure goes against the idea of control deck, but it is a guarantee mana of any color, it always serves me well when I just need that one red to play Deafening Clarion to wipe the board (my mana pool one have 3 lands for red) or ramping out Guild Summit for card draw, or turning my defense line in to a treat with Assault Formation, Arcades, the Strategist, etc.
Since you run your deck with Blood Sun, I think you have less concern on mana fixing, but if you going to try out 50/50 mana pool, you probably need to add few cards for mana fixing.
Just something that you might want to keep in mind.

I agree that Arcades, the Strategist always becomes the first target, so I never put the Glaive of the Guildpact on it. I only equip it on gargoyle to pressurize my opponent in mid to late game, so they have to deal with either arcades or gargoyle. When I dont have gargoyle out on the board, I put it on defender just for the vigilance and menace, it still gives my opponents a hard time. The more I play the more I realize that the key ability ofArcades, the Strategist is actually the card drawing, I usually can consistently drop 1~2 defenders on the board with Aracades just because of the card drawing ability. on top of the helps of guild summit.

There was one game that works ideally. I played a gate land to draw two defenders in hand (because of two guild summit on board), then I played two defenders out with arcades on board, therefore I drew another two cards (one defender, one gate land). Again, I played the last defender in hand, and drew one more card again (deafening clarion), tapped out. Next turn, deafening clarion for minor boardwipe, and swarmed in with all the defenders.

Glaive of the Guildpact only synergize with gargoyle in my deck and not really work well with defender since they are going to rely on the toughness solely, therefore I just put 2 in my deck for the gargoyle.

I think this defender idea won't work in standard as well as yours in my opinion.

In Standard, I think checkland probably a better choice for you since shockland is not gate anyway, why putting pressure on yourself to pay 2 lives in necessary situation, when you can use checkland to achieve the same goal.

1 month ago

I am creating a guild gate deck with another approach, and this deck is giving me a lot of great idea (the one I am building is modern tho)

As you know, the weakness of using all tapped lands is that you can only cast a 2CMC creatures on turn 3, and blood sun on turn 4 (in the best scenario). By the time you get the manas, you already took some damages from opponent(Aggro even worse). This is way too slow and I think the easiest way to fix it is adjust the mana pool, 50/50 basic lands and gate lands. I totally understands that it feels good to have all the gate lands in mana pool, I did that at first too, but it is just not practical. For my game test, 50/50 basic lands and gate lands, doesn't effect much on the performance of Gatekeeper Gargoyle and Glaive of the Guildpact, but increasing your chances of surviving from aggro dramatically. Sum of all, the reason of 50/50 mana pool is getting Basic lands to build up your defense, and using District Guide and Circuitous Route to ramp out the gate later.

1 month ago

Personally, I like the idea of this deck a lot, but I don't see a lot of synergies going on except for 'look, I'm playing a lot of guildgates'. I don't know a lot of MTG cards by heart, so in the next statement will be a fair bit of guesswork, but I believe it should be possible to have a more refined strategy and win condition going on while milking the gates for gains.

Tezzeret is nice although I think he, as well as the rest of the deck, might grow too late for you to be still alive? Maby I'm doing the math wrong, but it seems as if this deck is building up all the way trough early game without a lot of protection. Sure, Voltaic Servant is a great card (actually, i'm taking notes here), but beyond that all you have is an elf or 2 to chum block with.

And it is great that by turn 4 you can cast a 5/5 Awakened Amalgam Which then can be equipped with Glaive of the Guildpact and next turn possibly hit for 11, but since it's an artifact creature (and by then, your only threat on the board) I don't expect it to live long.

Maby also consider putting in some 1-2 drops that give you an edge (or protection) early game. Maby I'm making a too big deal out of this, but personally I'm a player that focusses a lot on the first 6 turns.. most of my decks either win or lose by turn 4-5-6. I'm not sure in what meta you playing but personally I'd perpare for that kind of agression.

For the rest; I would feel Blood Sun is more of a side deck card, Phyrexian Scriptures might be hard to get on the board due to the double black cost, and the guildgates have amazing art which is enough reason to play this deck in the first place... that should have gone on top.

Last; I notice quite a few ETB triggers. Maby it could be profitable to build some triggers on that by either bouncing or flickering or ...

Anyway, I think the deck is really interesting, and has the potential to be a mean machine if the strategy can be refined more. Good luck!

This would be for multiplayer and casual-ish 1v1. I will be kind of... forcing it to be good; like you said. I found a Mana Crypt for "cheap" at ~$80 and decided to go for it and grabbed to promo Etali too

I've never really been interested in building mono until etali. You and I were on the same page looking at your suggestions!

TypicalTimmy, I definitely plan on running a lot of the protection, haste, and unblockable equipments. Might not go full voltron.

Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, and Blood Sun are in there to be a pain in the ass. I've seen a few land destruction lists and it totally makes sense (as with any commander that gives you value for no extra mana costs)! I guess I'm just too friendly for that jazz. In a paid tournament setting I would though ;D

I kinda like your Charmbreaker Devils idea to get back extra combat spells and boardwipes; I appreciate the suggestions!

Gleeock, yuuup that deck looks evil! I'm going much more creature-heavy it looks like. Def hoping to focus on ramp and swinging asap before the opposition can get blockers out. If etali can't hold on I'll try to finish peeps off with dragons I guess. I'm more of a speed-to-the-finish-line over stax kinda guy. We'll see how I do! I might get rocked by control lol

1 month ago

agreed its nowhere near as good in all areas... more so just attempting to mimic it as close as possible...at least deck philosophy of skred red.

Shivan Fire caught my attention because of its ability to grow in the late game in the way skred gets stronger as more snow permanents are in play... perhaps Banefire would be more suitable in this aspect... idk still just an idea t this point.

mimicing Blood Moon is by far the toughest thing to do... is this the main thing you were getting at with not having the same factors in standard as modern Boza?... Blood Sun/Alpine Moon seem to be dead in all scenarios i typically come across/can think of in arena....but Damping Sphere might be good in those izzet matchups with Guttersnipe/Electrostatic Field/Niv-Mizzet, Parun... otherwise just might be nice to slow the creatures from being all dumped into play in one turn against the merfolk matchups or similar.

Sarkahn is no koth but i figure he's a better option than Chandra, Bold Pyromancer (i think anyway...) Have his abilities be used to ditch the least useful card in hand to hopefully topdeck something more relevent and his other ability to lay down a threat like Verix Bladewing and still leave mana open for another burn spell of even just pay that kicker cost.... his ultimate of 4 5/5 flyers is kinda cool but yeah its not koths emblem by a long shot.

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